Acting in 'Earnest'

Cindy King, head of the performing and visual arts department at Notre Dame Regional High School, said she is picky in terms of presentation when it comes to directing the school's plays and musicals.

In other words, she has high expectations for her student actors.

Notre Dame will present "The Importance of Being Earnest," a play written by Oscar Wilde, at 7 p.m. today, tomorrow and Saturday in the school cafeteria, marking the 51st year of dramatic productions at the high school.

The play is about two men, John "Jack" Worthing and Algernon "Algy" Moncrieff, who are seeking the affection of two women, Gwendolyn Fairfax and Cecily Cardew, respectively.

The only problem is that both women only will fall in love with men named Ernest.

Caleb Vetter, portraying Algernon Moncrieff, runs through a scene with Grant Strange, portraying John Worthing, on Tuesday during a dress rehearsal of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Notre Dame Regional High School. (Glenn Landberg)

Consequently, both men decide to pretend their names are Ernest. As any reasonable audience member could suspect, chaos ensues.

"They break all the rules that are supposed to happen with young couples in the Victorian Age," King said.

King said "The Importance of Being Earnest" was chosen for its charm and because the department has had success with it in the past.

"The play was chosen because it's clever and witty, and we knew that we had people who could carry those roles off," she said. "We have done this show before, and it was one of our better successes as far as audience laughter and reaction, so that was part of it."

The cast and crew have been working on the production since the second week in September, with minor breaks for Notre Dame's annual Activity Week and other preplanned obligations. It typically takes six to eight weeks to plan, rehearse and build sets for the fall play.

Megan Sprengel, portraying Gwendolen Fairfax, runs through a scene with Grant Strange, portraying John Worthing, during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, Nov. 3, of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Notre Dame Regional High School. (Glenn Landberg)

King said one thing she enjoys about directing plays at Notre Dame is seeing students learn in an active environment. She also enjoys introducing them to new techniques and styles of acting and creating sets.

"I think I do my best teaching when I'm working on the shows. ... I like to see the progress, and when you're working on a show, you see the progress," King said. "You know what people have learned when they get their lines down, and it's the first night they get all the way through; it's like you see that they're listening to me and you see the set built."

Junior Elecia Worley said she likes playing her character, Cecily Cardew, because she is full of attitude.

"Cecily's kind of interesting to play because she's really sassy," Worley said. "She's also kind of stupid, but she's just an interesting character to play because she's really naive, and she just kind of points out every single thing that's happening to her, which makes lines complicated, but it also makes them really funny. I also like that I get to talk out to the audience several times, and I like doing that; it's fun."

Alongside Worley is junior Caleb Vetter, who plays Algernon Moncrieff, the man pining for Cecily's affections.

Caleb Vetter, portraying Algernon Moncrieff, runs through a scene with Grant Strange, portraying John Worthing, during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, Nov. 3, of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Notre Dame Regional High School. (Glenn Landberg)

"Algernon is kind of an interesting character because he lives his life very freely," Vetter said. "He just kind of does whatever he wants to and doesn't care if someone yells at him -- he thinks it's funny; he just laughs at them. It's fun to not really care what people say to me in the play."

Vetter said he enjoys participating in the school's theater productions because it allows an opportunity to make lasting connections with his peers.

"I think it's about getting to do what you love and getting to make relationships with people that you might not normally have without this. They become really good relationships, and it's nice," Vetter said.

Worley was quick to agree.

"You really form a bond with everybody who you interact with, like everybody who's in the cast, because you just spend so much time with each other," Worley said. "Generally when somebody does it their freshman year, then they do it all through senior year, just because they realize how fun it is."

King said she has high expectations because the students have shown great dedication and hard work in preparing for the show.

"I think we have done a really wonderful job of working around all of the outside activities that everybody has. All these people are really busy. ... All these students are giving up a lot of time," King said. "I don't know that the public, when people come and sit in an audience, I want to say they don't have a clue as to how much work really went into this."

Vetter and Worley said playgoers should expect to laugh, have fun and hear a lot of clever jokes.

"It will be wonderful. ... It's a good escape-type thing," King said. "Now you have to listen, because it's not a visual comedy play; it's a 'you have to think and listen to the lines' kind of play. But it's funny -- people just laugh and laugh and laugh."

General admission tickets for "The Importance of Being Earnest" are $10 and are available for purchase online at tinyurl.com/ndtickets or by phone at (573) 335-6772, ext. 311. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. each night.